<p>Regardless of musical theater, the term “LAC” is not being used properly in some of these posts. For example, putting musical theater aside, Carnegie Mellon is not a “LAC” even if majoring in English. LAC stands for “liberal arts college.” CMU is a university, not a LAC. Same with some other schools in this thread like Webster and OCU. They are universities , not LACs. Muhlenberg is a LAC, as is Wagner, for instance. </p>
<p>A LAC, or Liberal Arts College, emphasizes undergraduate study in liberal arts. There are no graduate students. Most schools that are LACs have under 2500 students. They mostly award BA and BS degrees. The faculty’s priority is teaching more than research. The majority of students are full time and residential. </p>
<p>Schools like CMU, OCU, Elon, Illinois Wesleyan, CCM, Syracuse, NYU, UMich, Northwestern, and James Madison are universities, not LACs.</p>
<p>By the way, hardly any LACs offer BFA degrees. BFA programs are mostly located within universities, not LACs, or else stand alone conservatories.</p>
<p>This, of course, is not the same discussion as to how much liberal arts are required in a given musical theater program. But the term “LAC” is not being used correctly.</p>
<p>For the OP, CMU’s MT program is a conservatory located within a university but requires VERY little liberal arts coursework for the BFA. UArts is a stand alone conservatory that has a little bit of gen. ed. but is not a regular university that offers liberal arts degrees or an array of liberal arts courses. Emerson is a regional university (offers graduate degrees), but a specialized one that offers limited degrees as is specializes in performing arts and communications fields. Its BFA in MT program does have a significant amount of liberal arts requirements, though not as as much as a BA degree would have. Northwestern in a university, not a LAC, and offers a BA in Theater with a MT Certificate and thus the degree is broader in nature and includes a higher percentage of liberal arts courses than a BFA degree would require. </p>
<p>Your son needs to examine each school’s curriculum. Further, your child needs to decide if he wants a BA or a BFA degree. He needs to decide if he does go for a BFA degree, if he wants a stand alone conservatory or a conservatory style program within a university setting. Then, he needs to examine how much liberal arts each BFA degree program requires (differs widely between schools) and also the challenge level or selectivity level of the wider university in terms of academics. This also varies between BFA programs.</p>